Monday, August 31, 2009

what iggy's been up to....




also, keep your eyes peeled for new iggy spots from scotiabank, samsung, and coke....

jarome iginla: singlehandedly keeping the tv commercial industry in canada afloat.


:)

Sunday, August 30, 2009

team canada jerseys: hmmm.... interesting....




according to this guy, the team canada jerseys are faulty, so if you haven't already gotten one, you might wanna wait for reebok to fix'em....

when i was at the red and white scrimmage the other night, i ran into my bro's roommate at the pocketdawg stand. he'd been sitting with a bunch of dudes from team canada who explained the following:

(photo from the above linked article)

if you care to examine it, within the large crimson maple leaf between the dude's thumb and forefinger (and just below the crossed hockey sticks), there are three rows of lighter-coloured mini-maple leafs; seven, two, and one. 7: the number of men's olympic golds, 2: the number of women's olympic golds, 1: the number of sledge paralympic golds.

i'm sure this info was probably written in a press release somewhere, or was explained upon the jersey's official release, but i found it kinda cool and pretty interesting....

that's all on a hot sunday.

i've got some stuff upcoming that may or may not prove to be interesting. we'll see how it goes but suffice it to say i'm 99% sure that rookie camp starts sept 8 with fitness training. that's just over one week away.... YAY !!! HOCKEY'S BACK !!!

:)

Thursday, August 27, 2009

best. game. ever.

i'm not really even sure where to start, here, because the canadian men's olympic camp red v. white scrimmage was un-freakin-believable. even without the physical play we're accustomed to in the NHL (and that there will no doubt be during the olympic games), these guys were HUSTLING.... the pace and intensity was pretty high, but there was definitely good humour and sportsmanship offered forth by both teams...

the first thing that struck me was that there were quite obviously no rules set out, by hockey canada, in regards to jersey numbers.... on the red team there was #11 jordan staal and #11 danny cleary. also on the red team was #19 joe thornton and #19 shane doan... the white team had #12 jarome iginla, #12 eric staal, #3 dion phaneuf and #3 stéphane robidas.... i'm not sure who was in charge of this fiasco but let's just say anyone in the third tier would've had a whole lot of trouble figuring out which players were which.... even down in the 200's, i had an argument about which #11 made an awesome play (it certainly didn't help that j.staal and cleary were on the same line for the first two periods)...

for the record: the best line on the ice bar-none were "the elevens" with doan on the wing. surprised ? yeah... me too.

another interesting thing was that mike babcock coached the reds for the first two periods and they DOMINATED (i think the final shot clock showed 46-21, or so, for the visitors)... he came out with team white in the third and they seriously picked up their game. it was pretty heartwarming to note that whichever team he was coaching was the better squad....

the first period was probably one of the most amazing twenty minutes of hockey i've ever had the pleasure of watching in person. within the first minute, the reds had swarmed the net and bobby lu made the most mind-boggling save ever for team white. not to be outdone, brodeur snapped a wicked glove on a kickass crosby wrister and absolutely ROBBED spezza in the period's dying seconds.... there was really never any doubt but those two goalies should probably just buy their tickets to vancouver right now.... the shots at the end of one read 15-5 for the red team, and the scoreboard read 0-0.... bobby lu stole a few, to be sure.

there was a lot of "LUUUUUUUUUUU" from the crowd in the first when roberto stood on his head, and again in the post-game shootout when lucic went in on net (and missed). there was also a lot of "BOOOOOOOOOOO," both for pronger and for heatley throughout the game.... heater, however, got a mix of jeers and cheers (the guy behind me said something like "...in his hometown ?!? man !! heatley's for sure on the bench all single-tear") but sent the crowd into a frenzy when he scored in the shootout.

what else ?

the four players representing the calgary flames looked a little.... uh... frightening. regehr, quite frankly, sucked in the first period --though, admittedly, he wasn't allowed to play "his" game in a non-physical scrimmage... he kept losing his man, and seemed to be scattered and out of position a lot. i'm hoping this is just the result of learning a new system, but it was disconcerting at best.... dion also scares the crap out of me, currently, as he was noticeably the guy doing NOTHING in front of the net during opposing scoring chances (one which led to a goal).... we're talking flat-footed, stick on the ice, doing his best bertuzzi impression.... ugh... iggy also looked a step behind on a line with crosby and nash (btw: nash was AWESOME, crosby was GOOD, iggy was..... well.... i'm PRETTY SURE iggy was on that line)... he was replaced in the third period by martin st.louis, and ended up grinding it out with derek roy and jonathan toews... regehr and dion also switched partners in the third (seabrook & doughty).... scary, scary stuff. the good news for flames fans ? jaybouw looks awfully effin' sharp. :P

guys who did pretty much nothing, or at least i didn't notice them much:
patrick sharp, vinny lecavalier, mike richards, andy mcdonald, francois beauchemin, duncan keith, marc staal, jonathan toews, brendan morrow, getzlaf/gagné (*snicker*).

guys who were invisible except when they were scoring goals:
ryan smyth, patrick marleau, joe thornton (who's goal was so obviously kicked in that while they were reviewing it, he was all smiles on the bench), and corey perry (who was noticeably bad for the most part, in my opinion).

guys i really liked a lot:
shane doan, rick nash, jordan staal, eric staal, jaybouw, brent burns, shay weber, jeff carter, niedermayer, danny cleary, danny boyle, st.louis, spezza, brodeur/luongo, mike green on the powerplay

guys who pissed me off for playing dumb/dirty:
milan lucic (two ridiculous and unnecessary plays, one led to a holding the stick penalty, the other could very easily have led to an injury), dion phaneuf (after totally flubbing a play and losing his man, he chased him down and MASHED him into the boards....), chris pronger (okay he didn't actually DO anything other than thread the needle on a beauty pass, but i just don't like him).

guys who are gonna be pissed off tomorrow about their errors:
brent seabrook (lost an edge, fell, and lost the puck which led to a goal against), marc staal (his use of rhett warrener's patented stick-on-the-ice to stop a shot/pass move actually tipped in ryan smyth's goal)

i guess that's it for now. i'm sure mike h --who was with me at the game-- will remind me in the comments section about anything i might have missed....

final score: 2-2 after regulation and 6-2 after shootout (where all twelve forwards on both teams --- brent burns in lieu of simon gagné--- took a shot).

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

team canada captaincy: irritation

there's been a whole lotta talk in the past week or two about who should lead the canadian men's hockey team into vancouver in 2010, and it's really starting to grate on my nerves....

when you compile a team of veritable allstars, many of whom captain their NHL clubs, there's no question that singling out one individual as "THE" leader is a tough call (and i certainly don't envy stevie Y for having to actually
MAKE this decision in the next few months)... but the pundits, bloggers, and journalists are turning this thing into a three-ring circus.

from the sounds of it, the frontrunners are scott niedermeyer, sidney crosby, and our own jarome iginla. all solid choices for different reasons.... nieds is the most decorated hockey player of all time, having won virtually every award possible in his distinguished career... iginla is knows as a great leader, a good presence, a positive voice in the lockerroom.... and sid is the youngest captain to have won a stanley cup, FINALLY, after two straight seasons of deep (and certainly pressure-filled) playoff runs....

i can definitely get behind any of those (probably less for sid, but hey ---the kid's got a cup ring and iggy doesn't), but it's the other suggestions in the media that are driving me insane:

this poll seems to actually nominate roberto luongo as an option, and i'm not convinced it's a joke... this guy actually suggests chris "elbows" pronger without seemingly cracking a grin, and throws mike richards' name into the hat as well.... no offense to richards but does anyone
actually think he's got a shot at the C over niedermeyer or iginla ??! dream on, dan rosen... i'm glad that YOU'RE writing for nhl.com and i'm not....

personally, i'm surprised at how often shane doan has been overlooked in the media's musings, considering
he's been his NHL club's captain for six years, and team canada captain for the past 3 world championships (which makes him FAR more relevant than ryan smyth) ... personally, i don't even think smyth will get a spot on the final roster, injuries notwithstanding... simply put, the fact that bob nicholson had to sit in front of a parliamentary committee in defense of hockey canada naming doan as the team's captain in 2006 should put the phoenix coyote squarely on the short list.

realistically, however, doan might not make the final squad, either..... it's an embarrassment of riches, and i do not envy some of the decisions that stevie Y will be making in the next few months.... but i can't wait to see the final team hit the ice. at least we know that the end result of the captaincy controversy will end with one hell of a hockey player wearing both a maple leaf and a C.....

Thursday, August 20, 2009

more rumoured 3rd jersey news....

i may add a sjöström jersey to the collection yet !!!!



once again, icethetics looks to have the scoop on the flames' third jerseys.... i'm SO not convinced that this is actually ever going to appear as a proper logo, emblazoning the chests of the calgary flames (it looks more like a patch a la 25th anniversary of the cup). still, i'm amazed by the design.

i can't imagine ken king et al. greenlighting this logo at all.... while a lot of my design buddies (ie: my bro) have long sought a skyline emblem for our alternate sweaters, this graffiti-style logo seems a far cry from the sleek and masculine look the organization has long supported (hellooooo abbotsford heat logo !!!).... it looks more like it should be on a sled island tshirt than any kind of pro sports emblem....

interestingly, however, it appeared on the flames' website ---my buddy jason was able to screengrab it before it disappeared (note the flames' site, in the top right hand corner, the logo is discernable). thanks to him once again for doing all the research and dirty work.... :)

anyhow.

like i said last week, the nhl/rbk store in nyc (where nhl live! broadcasts from) told me there will be no 3rd jersey, just a vintage re-release... in further research, i've now heard that there won't be one at all (but perhaps this is all to avoid any hearsay and leakage out of the front office). we'll see i guess....

olympic camp scrimmage

did you get your tickets yet ?

i did.
:)

Thursday, August 13, 2009

olympic jerseys released

obviously i'm not the first to know (i never am) and i totally will rip these photos from the icethetics website, but here's our first look at the canadian olympic jerseys:





to me, it's a step backwards from the classic hockey canada jersey (no longer allowed at olympic tournaments), which is the best hockey logo ever, in my opinion, but it's still featured as an arm patch.... i'm a minimalist, of course, so i do like the sleek, uncomplicated design and i think the font works well here.... the detail within the maple leaf is decidedly "west coast" and thus appropriate for the 2010 games. i would have been good with incorporating some black in the design, but that might be the colour of the breezers (though red is still totally possible as well).

bottom line: i'm a fan.

thoughts ?

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

bad news for the sjöström jersey....

so i found myself in new york city today near bryant park, and since nyc is kindof familiar ground, i realized that the nhl reebok store was mere blocks away ---so i thought i'd pop in. the dude welcoming people at the front of the store said "hi, how are you, can i help you at all ?" to which i responded "yeah... i've got a skill-testing question for you, and you won't know the answer."

the question was, of course, "when are the flames releasing the third jersey ?"

he had to enlist the help of another dude (apparently andrew, the flames fan in the joint, wasn't working today) who called his "nhl contact" to find out.

the answer ? "the flames aren't releasing a third jersey this year, they'll play some games in a vintage jersey, though."

"vintage ???? the FLAMES ??? ... so.... uhhh.... they're gonna wear an atlanta flames sweater ?"

"yeah, or maybe a '89 era one."

this is bunk, in my opinion.
i'm gonna consult my buddy adam (who's dad is a reebok/nhl rep of some sort) and see what he can find out, but i'm certainly un-pleased if this is the truth. i want a sjöström jersey and i can't get it in the '89 era colours....

:(

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

there's still hope for johnny A

there's been a lot of talk about who will be the next big calgary centre, and after reading this article, i've got to wonder if my horse out of last year's prospect and rookie camp has an actual shot.... if you don't like the reading the herald, my précis of the piece is that john armstrong played nearly a full season both on the knee he injured at training camp last september, and with a severely injured shoulder as well. now, neither of these are "news" to us, but what the article does fill us in on the fact that johnny A had them both operated on in april....

knowing this, and seeing how far he's come in three months (and that he's got another two to fully rehabilitate), PLUS his measly cap-hit makes him a fairly strong contender for a #1 call-up. presuming he's as good as i think he is, of course....

DAMN, why are there no articles on regehr/phaneuf/gio's health status..... ?

in other news, roenick is apparently retiring.... i wonder if he's more a tsn guy or a sportsnet guy.